Each country has its specifics when it comes to saving money, meaning that just like each of them has a national dish, each has its own ways of living cheap. While everyone says South America is expensive, we managed to live well for a long term average of around $15/day. You can obviously go up with the budget to luxurious $30/day or cut it down to less than $5-10 just like the street performers or travellers-workers. It’s up to you how you want to travel and where you want to push the limits of your comfort zone.

3 big expenses

There are 3 biggest expenses for travellers: eat, travel and sleep. In expensive countries (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile), you should forget about eating out in restaurants, taking the bus, sleeping in hostels or even campsites, some of which charge over $10 a night (Brazil, Chile, Argentina). However, in cheaper countries like Bolivia, Peru, Cuba or Mexico, you can afford living like a king including eating out, staying at hostels with swimming pools and taking comfortable buses. You win some you lose some, right?

Getting around can be a considerable expense so it makes sense for you to plan the intended route ahead - look for cheap routes and cover most distance on these services (for example, Buenos Aires has cheap buses to Mendoza, Bariloche or Salta). You can also hitchhike as there are trucks doing long haul routes and they take you quite far (Chile), just beware they often have only 1 seat legally. It is easy and cheap to find transport for short distances using microbuses. Now that you have the general idea, let’s move onto the actual tips!

The tips & tricks

Take overnight buses. This saves you 1 night of accommodation and gives you a full day of stuff-free exploration of the city (you can often leave your backpack with the company)

In cities, book one night, get 2 days for exploring, leave your stuff at the hostel. You have to free the bed before noon, but can continue using the facilities both days (toilet/shower/lockers)!

Shop at supermarkets, cook your own food (in some countries like Bolivia, Peru, Mexico or Cuba this is unnecessary as it’s cheaper to eat out). Find marketplaces to shop for groceries and fresh fruits/veggies (Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, Cuba) or fruit/veg shops (Argentina or Brazil).

Meet local people: they can tell you where to eat, sleep or even invite you to stay at their house (doesn’t apply for Cuba!)

Share a beer with travelers to exchange tips on what to do or tourist traps, meet new friends or travel partners

Bring a tent, hike, sleep in the nature and don’t pay for accommodation (largely done by us in Argentina where we only paid for 4 nights in our 1,5 months there)

Find campsites for free or ask people whether you can stay in their garden (Argentina)

Use public transportation, hitchhike, walk around, challenge the local stereotypes (many people would put you off from taking public transportation or else tell you things are too far to walk)

Take buses from terminals, where you have more bargaining power. Don’t go with the first company. Sometimes it’s worth paying more for comfort (especially on overnight buses)

The best deals are not always online, ask “offline” as well! (That lady cooking home made food, that family guesthouse…). So don’t book everything in advance on the internet. We only do this when going to a big city, it’s usually cheaper and safer to know about a place to stay (it’s a bad idea to wander about a South American city you don’t know, as you might get to a bad part of town very quickly).

Alcohol is generally expensive, but each country has its national booze. There’s very cheap wine in Argentina and Chile. Cheap pisco in Bolivia and Peru. Rum in Colombia, Cuba or cachaça in Brazil. Tequila in Mexico. Beer is rather expensive (prices comparable to Europe/USA).

Always agree on the price before boarding the bus/micro/taxi and try to negotiate the first price down. Know the real price, ask the locals how much they pay, try multiple companies/people to get an idea about the price (we give them the price for which we’re willing to go, they more often take it). This avoids unnecessary rip offs and disappointment.

Have some small change. Especially true for Cuba, you think you’ve agreed on the price, but they might try scamming you by telling you the price is per person not for the two of you, once you hand the bill over, it’s too late. This is a well known trick used by taxi drivers.

Look for crowded places or queues, they usually mean people wait for something exceptionally good or cheap. Stick to places with people and you might have just found a hidden gem!

Book plane tickets well in advance, there’s considerable savings here. We flew from Venice to Rio de Janeiro for $250!

Proof your bargaining skills. Don’t be afraid to cut the price by 2 or even by 25 times (yes this is how much more they want to charge foreigners in Cuba!). Walk off, they would usually run after you with a much better deal (taxis, colectivos). If travelling during low season, you know you are pulling at the longer side of the cord, and you can get significant discounts (true for accommodation in Cuba where we manage 50% off or hostel for the price of camping in Brazil). In some countries you can bargain more (Peru, Bolivia, Cuba) in others, the discounts are not that significant (Colombia, Mexico, Argentina or Brazil).

Buy your own gear. When you wanna go snorkeling, buy your gear at the shop and not at the beach, it’s cheaper to buy than renting it for a day. You can sell it after you’re done using it. The same goes for hiking or camping gear.

Take out the tour operators. Not only are you more free but this saves you so much money. We saw some people even going in for advice and then doing the trip on their own. We’ve never done this as we find all the information online on sites like wikitravel or wikiexplora or wikiloc… For example, we were able to do the Salkantay trek in Peru with our own equipment for less than 1/5 the cost of the tour agencies, doing exactly the same itinerary including transport (public microbus).

Don’t forget

You are trying to achieve a long-term average of $15/day. This doesn’t mean we’d spend exactly $15, sometimes it’d be $30 having gone to a party, at other times, we would spend exactly 0 bucks!

Don’t forget to have a great time, have fun! Low budget shouldn’t stop you from enjoying your travel; on the contrary, it should enable you to have a great time anywhere you go and put you in situations where you meet a lot of incredible people!